It's been almost three years since Steve Cosson and
his New York-based part-theater, part-documentary troupe the Civilians
finished a cumulative 10 weeks in Colorado Springs creating This
Beautiful City. The New York Times would eventually call the
show "engaging, inquisitive and evenhanded," but even since then it's
gone through some refining. Now, following tour stops in Los Angeles,
New York City and Washington, D.C., Cosson and company are headed back
to the genesis point.

Originally staged and produced in conjunction with
Colorado College in February 2007 and titled Save This City, the
show offers an unbiased snapshot of Colorado Springs and its
relationship with evangelical Christianity during the time of Ted
Haggard's ousting from New Life Church. With worship-service-ready
musical numbers by Civilians composer Michael Friedman and
interviews-turned-dialogue with prayer warriors, resentful atheists and
transgendered Christians, This Beautiful City hits the local
note dead on.

With such a diverse assemblage, it's a foregone
conclusion that audience reactions will be mixed.

"The reactions really are pretty wide-spectrum,"
says Cosson, the 41-year-old co-writer and director, who adds, "I think
I could characterize the typical reaction as overwhelmed. But then as
the show progresses ... most people find themselves surprised by it and
will say that their preconceptions about what evangelicals would be
like are challenged."

Cosson adds that in post-show discussions, he's
found that many Christians saw the show as having a liberal slant,
while "audience members with more antagonistic attitudes towards
religious groups" felt that the show didn't go far enough in exposing
intolerance and hypocrisy.

"And then there's a large constituency in the middle
that finds the show fair and truthful," Cosson says. "We [tried] to get
different stories into the same play that would bring the questions
in-play to the surface, instead of making those questions as difficult
as possible to answer."

Reactions aside, Cosson says he's just excited to be
coming back to Colorado Springs: "It's going to be a real pleasure for
us to do a show where the audience actually knows what we're talking
about and gets those references."